Oh boy - more gossip. Well, first of all - we can expect that IF this is true then Yamaha will be very tight-lipped about serious details about a Tyros Pro until they officially discontinue the 9000 Pro, which they haven't yet. But "leaking info" would be par for the course and a good little dirty marketing trick to help dent the impact of the Korg PA1-X Pro. And the timeline seems logical too - Yamaha debuted the Tyros at a Summer NAMM, which typically has less new products than the Winter NAMM so you can create a bigger splash with a new product release.

It occurs to me that Yamaha need not and likely would not develop any new technology to create a Tyros Pro. By assembling many of the features and components from the existing Tyros and the Motif ES, Yamaha can make a successor to the 9000 Pro that would be very competitive to the PA1-X Pro while not competing with it's own lines. What I mean by that is that Yamaha would likely combine existing features/technology with minor upgrades rather than release any major new ones so as not to offend current Tyros and Motif ES owners. Even if new features/technology are on the horizon, Yamaha could opt to save that for an even further release (the 2005 Tyros Pro ES for example). Since it's about a 2-3 year development process to create and release new keyboards, I expect this to be the case. So there isn't much use in wish-listing ourselves to death and over-building our expectations. Still, I would be very interested in the results of merging the Tyros with the Motif ES into a new 76-note arranger. I just hope they keep the gooseneck LittleLites from the 9000 Pro!!!